Ballotpedia has tracked nonbinding political party platform advisory questions in three states—Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas. Democratic and Republican parties have placed these questions on statewide ballots to gauge voters’ support for various policy proposals. All three states have open primaries, meaning that voters do not have to formally affiliate with a political party in advance to vote in its primary.
The number of nonbinding questions featured on a state primary ballot ranged from two in South Carolina (Republican ballots in 2014) to 13 in Georgia (Republican ballots in 2022) and Texas (Republican ballots in 2024).
The following are some examples of party question elections. Georgia Republicans voted on advisory questions in July 1996, June 2020, and May 2022. Georgia Democrats voted on advisory questions in May 2014, as well as in 2020 and 2022. Both parties in South Carolina placed advisory questions on the ballot in June 2014, and the South Carolina Republican Party placed questions on the primary 2024 ballot. In Texas, the Republican Party has placed questions on every state primary ballot from 2020 to 2024. Texas Democrats placed questions on the 2020 primary ballot.
